Talk:First Contact War
Ok, so the intro para states this was a 3 month long conflict, while the aftermath para states the fighting didn't even last 2 months. Any ideas as to why this discrepancy exists and which figure is correct? SpartHawg948 06:42, 25 June 2009 (UTC) Pictures I know it's impossible to get pics of the actual First Contact War, but with Pinnacle Station we can get the next best thing: shots of the recreation of Ahern's mission. Anyone? : ) --Tullis 13:13, October 11, 2009 (UTC) Battle Info Table Work in progress. |} :So... couple thoughts. Firstly, the location isn't just Shanxi. Shanxi was just the site of a couple of the battles. Secondly, I'm not a fan of an info box that, to put it bluntly, lacks much info. Way too many "unknown"s for my liking. SpartHawg948 14:01, February 14, 2010 (UTC) :: Hence why it wasn't immediately put into the article, was just going to let it linger here until either the unknowns were filled in or it gets lost in eternity... :::Honestly, I'd vote for the latter, which is why I commented right away. Why create something like this unless it is actually intended to be used, not just to "get lost in eternity". There just doesn't seem to be enough for a box. It looks kind of sloppy as is- we have an image for the Alliance but not the Hierarchy, and there are too many unknowns. SpartHawg948 14:08, February 14, 2010 (UTC) Human Weapons? ---- Does anyone know what kind of weaponry humanity had? First off, their ships can't have been that prepared for fighting, as they had never had to fight any interplanetary war. Second, their personal weapons couldn't have been that powerful. In Halo for example, the humans were well prepared for war on a stellar scale, having had an oversized military due to fighting human factions, and specifically developed warships. Humanity in Mass Effect had never seen that kind of action, and had only had Mass Effect technology for a few years. :No we have no idea what weapons the Alliance had access to at the time. Also to think that the Alliance wasn't prepared for first contact, espeically one that ended up hostile, is a little nieve in my opinion. We don't know the weapons, tactics, or the state of really any type of weapon tech at the time, so maybe the Alliance was more prepared than you give them credit for. Also comparing ME to Halo is really, really stretching it as weapons between the two universes operate differently and IMO, the weapons in ME are more advanced, but that's me. Yes I am a Halo fan and currenlty have all the games. Just trowing that out there. Lancer1289 01:16, October 28, 2010 (UTC) ::Just want to point out... the statement that "their ships can't have been that prepared for fighting, as they had never had to fight any interplanetary war" is false, and flies in the face of canon info from multiple sources. The early version of the official website (which I don't believe is available anymore) states several times that, prior to first contact with the turians (aka the First Contact War), the Systems Alliance had already amassed a sizable and powerful fleet even though they had never encountered any other races. And in Mass Effect: Revelation, we get a glimpse of what the Alliance fleet looks like right as the First Contact War is starting: "The Alliance fleet - nearly two hundred vessels ranging from twenty-man destroyers to dreadnoughts with crews of several hundred - stretched out from it in all directions, surrounding the station like an ocean of steel." (Pg 7) So, even before the War, the Alliance had at least around 200 ships, including multiple dreadnoughts. And this is in one system (the Arcturus System), so it's highly unlikely that this was the entire Alliance fleet. It's more likely just the Fifth Fleet (aka the Arcturus Fleet). And pg 23 points out that the war only lasted two months. Not enough time to build new ships, so the Alliance Navy as it existed immediately prior to the war clearly was "that prepared for fighting", as one fleet by itself (the Second Fleet) was able to drive the turians off of Shanxi. ::It's also important to note that the weapons used by humans likely weren't much different from the weapons they use in Mass Effect. Just look at the pistol The Illusive Man is using on the cover of Mass Effect: Evolution. This is because pretty much all weapons used by any of the Citadel races are based off of Prothean technology (and as such, likely on Reaper tech), which the Alliance already had access to. SpartHawg948 04:09, October 28, 2010 (UTC) :::You've made some good points, but I think you've gone a little far in one regard. It's my understanding that Arcturus Station is the main naval base from which the Alliance can respond to threats across three clusters, namely Sol, Arcturus Stream & Exodus Cluster. It seems highly likely that the 200 vessels was the bulk of the Alliance's entire fleet, with some patrol squadrons/flotillas sprinkled around their expanding territory. Two main Fleets makes sense for that time, when humanity's resources were stretched thin by the policy of rapid expansion. One at Sol. One at Arcturus (construction began in 2151). Yes, they knew there were aliens out there & wanted to maximise military capacity just in case, but resources & politics would've restrained that supra-national body with no sovereignty & little legitimacy. As you've pointed out though, the Alliance was as prepared as it possibly could have been. The impression I got was that the Alliance only stepped up production after they realised just how big the turian fleets truly were. 17:17, September 10, 2018 (UTC) :::To speculate on the discrepancy between three months & two months, I propose travel time. It could well be a stretch, but the distances involved could account for most, if not all, of the month. Relay 314 was likely on the outer edge of Citadel space, & things only escalated from police action to war after the Alliance's retaliatory force from Shanxi destroyed the turian patrol fleet. Between reporting the police action, reporting the loss of the patrol fleet, gathering & dispatching a fleet of warships & skirmishing on the human side of Relay 314, I think a few weeks of travel time is a believable gap. At least, that's all that makes to me. It also took a month for the Alliance to rearrange their patrols & fleets for recon & defence, before the Second Fleet reached Shanxi. 17:40, September 10, 2018 (UTC) Relay 314 Was Relay 314 ever activated? Blindman25 16:06, March 30, 2012 (UTC) more importantly where does it even go? 09:48, August 26, 2012 (UTC) :Things like this belong in the forums or a blog post as this isn’t what talk pages are for. Lancer1289 (talk) 18:03, August 26, 2012 (UTC) ::YOU dont know how to use the talk page. The talk page is specifically for questioning elements within the page. The user asked if additional material exists, and whether it should be put it. Answer it, or don't comment at all. -G Adding Petrovsky? Going back the Mass Effect Invasion comics and how Oleg held off a Turian assault for weeks as a corporal, the use of "Turians' as a general context makes it sound like they're represented as a whole. And the only known major conflict with the Turians was the First Contact War. I wonder if this might be enough basis to put Petrovsky in as a participant.--KrimzonStriker (talk) 03:29, November 9, 2012 (UTC) :That's the thing, we just don't know the context of the quote. There are plenty of turians that you can fight over the course of the series, and that is what he could be referring to. Mercs, slavers, and that kind. It just isn't enough at this moment to put it down. If we can get more information, like with the Omega DLC could shed more light on this, then we can say for certain. Lancer1289 (talk) 03:35, November 9, 2012 (UTC) ::I know, I know, it's vague and maybe we should hold off on it. Still, as I said, "Turians" is being used rather generally here, not pirates, not mercenaries, not slavers, just "Turian". Under most context with something that general you'd look to the group that most represents the species, i.e the Hierarchy, which basically leaves only the First Contact War under that circumstance. Well, something to remember in case we do revisit this after the Omega DLC.--KrimzonStriker (talk) 03:49, November 9, 2012 (UTC) :::And the same escapes me right now, but there is mention of a number of turians in merc bands a a band that is either entirely or mostly turian. Sometimes factions can get blurred, especially someone from a racist organization, or even forgotten. Lancer1289 (talk) 03:56, November 9, 2012 (UTC) ::::Isn't Aria the one who makes that comment? She's got a lot of various sources of information to pull from. And Oleg's not exactly a racist himself as far as I can tell. Neither is the Illusive Man actually, he's more uber-nationalistic then anything else.--KrimzonStriker (talk) 04:09, November 9, 2012 (UTC) :::::The point is that it is speculation to even include it. Any mention of it will be removed as speculation. We don't have context, and we don't know what he is referring to. Lancer1289 (talk) 04:11, November 9, 2012 (UTC) :::::: As I said, I only thought I'd see whether it might be enough. Since it isn't then I'll leave it at that until if/when we get more detail from Omega.--KrimzonStriker (talk) 04:23, November 9, 2012 (UTC) Implying there was a Second Contact War? Should it really be called the "First" contact war? Was there a second? (If so, what was it?). Example. First world war was original called "great war" before the second war. -G :No, there wasn't a "Second Contact War". It was called the First Contact War because it was just that: First Contact with another race. Besides, I'm not sure this belongs on a talk page. -- 06:54, February 3, 2013 (UTC) ::Indeed. GodzillaMaster summed it up correctly. It's not the First Contact War, it's the First Contact War, since it's a war that was directly caused by humanity's first contact with an alien race. This is also supported by the fact that the turian name for the conflict, the Relay 314 Incident, makes no mention of contact, first or otherwise. Besides, literally all of the sources refer to it as the First Contact War. So yes, it should really be called the First Contact War. SpartHawg948 (talk) 08:31, February 3, 2013 (UTC)